Dudley's Cousin
by Salomedancing
Summary: Dudley seemed like such a normal guy. And he was, it was just the little matter with his cousin.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I don't own Dudley and his family; they belong to J. K. Rowlings.**

**I have always wondered a little about Dudley. He starts out so nasty and then he has a revelation and really tries to make up to Harry, even if he isn't very good at it. What would he work with and what kind of girl would he meet? I figured he would probably like a girl who was good at telling him what to do, but I also wanted him to meet a nice girl who would appreciate him for who he was, even if Dudley is pretty dull. I also needed some relief from writing All Within which is turning out quite sad. Writing about Dudley is just fun.**

Sue met Dudley Dursley when she started working at a new coffee shop. As jobs go it wasn't particularly exiting, but it had the perk of being beside a top notch gym and Sue could fit n her aerobics classes before, or after, work and with a nice discount too. And of course it meant that a lot of guys from the gym also visited the coffee shop. Not that Sue was very interested, most of them seemed much too aware of their muscles and could be quite obnoxious when they more or less expected her to fall over backwards over their advances. She did have a thing for huge muscles, though, so she could always enjoy the scenery. Dudley wasn't exactly handsome, but he was huge, like a young and blond Arnold Schwarzenegger and then she noticed him even more because he never came on to her. That he liked her was clear, but he only ever looked at her with rather endearing puppy eyes. Not that Sue was shy, so in the end she asked him out instead.

On their first date she found out that he was an only child, that his parents lived outside London and that he worked as a carpenter for a firm who did high end house renovations. She also found out that they liked the same food, the same television shows, that they were both interested in fitness and laughed at the same sitcoms. Sue did most of the talking, but it was Dudley who asked if they could go out again.

On their second date he talked a bit more and Sue found out that he had become a carpenter because woodwork had been the only thing he had ever been good at, at school. Then she found out that he could barely read.

"Well, I can read, but it takes time. You know, on tests, they always ended before I had even read all the questions. So I didn't bother to study anyway."

"But that sounds like you have dyslexia-didn't anyone notice? One of my brothers's got it and he got all sorts of help."

Dudley blushed. "Yeah, well, there were some teacher who talked about it, but my parents only said that it was nothing wrong with me. That it was the teacher's fault for not making school interesting and that I would pull through. But I never did."

Sue was shocked. "You mean they did nothing? That's awful! Sorry, it's your parents, I know, and it's good to have faith in your kinds, but really, they should have seen to the best for you!"

She rather regretted her outburst later, thinking that critizising parents probably worked as a good damper on a budding relationship, but she didn't have to worry, Dudely phoned the next day asking her out again.

On their third date, Sue, who lived with two other girls in a cramped flat, made sure Dudley took her home to his place by the end of the evening. Great decision, Sue thought the next day when she went to work, sadly lacking of sleep, but very satisfied otherwise. After that they stopped dating and became an item instead. The main drawback with that were Dudley's parents. They were a real horror, and Sue didn't need many minutes to realize that she would never get along with them. They arrived at Dudley's door precisely at ten, Sunday morning, every fortnight. Then his Mum cleaned the apartment, did all the laundry, went grocery shopping , cooked Sunday dinner and placed thirteen ready, home cooked, meals in the freezer. Petunia was stick thin and moved constantly around, while Dudley's father Vernon was fat and plumped himself in front of the telly and spent the day wheezing, eating and being a complete bore on every subject he touched. Petunia clearly disliked Sue too, telling her what kind of girl who would be best for Dudley and listing just about every characteristic that Sue didn't possess. Vernon, on the other hand, looked at her with exactly the same expression that they guys who tried her feel her up in the coffee shop. Sue decided then and there to never turn her back on Vernon if they were ever alone in the same room.

She couldn't help it, after the first meeting to turn to Dudley. "Ever considered that London isn't far enough from Little Whinging? Ever thought about moving to Scotland?"

To her relief Dudley just laughed. "Frequently."

That Petunia did all Dudley's household chores proved to be a problem. To Sue's complete amazement she realized that, he wasn't lazy; he just didn't know how to take care of his home. He could load his dishwasher, but that was just about all. His apartment that Petunia left spic and span gradually went into chaos until she came again and cleaned. Sue, as Petunia had already declared, was not the type to clean other people's messes.

"Dudley", she told him when they had been together for a month, "If you ever want me to move in, then you need to learn how to do a few things around here!"

Dudley looked completely dumbfounded. "You want to live here? You want to live with me?"

"Of course I want to! You are my dream guy, haven't you realized that?"

Clearly he hadn't and the look on his face made Sue's heart stop. He was such a sweet guy, and really, apart from the cleaning stuff, he was all she had ever wanted. She knew she could be bossy and having a tendency to say what was on her mind before thinking, but Dudley didn't seem to mind that- if anything he seemed to be proud of her. So Sue set out to teach him what a laundry basket was good for, how to use a vacuum cleaner, the importance of a clean toilet and a number of other things that, really, anyone should know about their own home. Dudley listened and learned and a few months later Sue packed her belongings and moved in. It wasn't perfect, Dudley's socks usually ended up on the bedroom floor, but he tried and he didn't mind if Sue reminded him, but all in all things were great. She loved getting home after working evening and nestling down in the sofa with Dudley, or going to the gym together and they always agreed on what movie to see next and the sex was simply great. What more could a girl want?

To be truthful, it also gave Sue an immense satisfaction, when Petunia commented on the state of the floor and telling Sue the true and only way on how to vacuum, to tell her that it was Dudley who had done it. It left Petunia speechless.

The parental visits from the Dursleys continued, but Sue often found that her own Mum needed help with something those days, or perhaps she needed to spend time with her brother's children, or something similar, so she could often minimize her contact with Dudley's parents. She had managed to put a stop to the meals in the freezer, but if Petunia wanted to clean house, then Sue was prepared to ignore the hints that her and Dudley's cleaning wasn't enough, and enjoy the fact that she at least never had to clean the oven or the windows. She couldn't avoid all visits, though and it was on one of those that she first heard about Dudley's cousin.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Well, this story took its sweet time to come. I promise to try to not let you wait four years to the next chapter...**

The Sunday visit from Dudley's parents was as boring as usual. Petunia had cleaned, punctuating her work with some rather barbed comments on Sue's housekeeping and now they were drinking coffee. Petunia was holding a monologue on how she, as the opposite to Sue, always made sure that she had always made the cookies herself when Dudley grew up. Vernon grunted in affirmation, though Sue noticed that he crammed the offending cookies into his mouth like there was tomorrow. Sue wisely kept her mouth shut, though Dudley told his mother several times that he happened to love Jaffa cakes, but Petunia pretended not to hear that. It was then the phone rang.

"Who could be calling at this time", Petunia sniffed, as if calling on an early Sunday afternoon was more offensive than phoning in the middle of the night. Dudley went to answer and after a short conversation he returned, looking a bit odd.

"It was Harry", he said and to Sue's amazement his parents reacted surprisingly violently to this simple statement. Petunia went white and Vernon red, choking on his cookie.

"Harry!" Petunia said in a high-pitched voice and Dudley nodded.

"Yeah. He is in the vicinity and wanted to come up and say hi to Sue. They have never met before."

"That's it", Vernon rose with an unexpected speed and agility. "We are leaving. Now, Petunia."

Sue didn't even have time to react before Dudley's parents were dressed and ready to leave. In the door Petunia turned around: "How is Harry?"

Her voice trembled a little and Dudley had barely time to say "Fine. Got a nice girlfriend", before Vernon yanked her away and they were gone.

Sue was completely dumbfounded. "Who is Harry?"

"My cousin. Our mum's were sisters. I better make some more coffee."

Sue was still wondering what kind of ogre Harry must be to provoke Vernon and Petunia's speedy departure when the doorbell rang and she went to open the door. The man outside looked perfectly normal to her, though she could see no family resemblance to either Dudley or Petunia. He was not very tall and quite thin and with lots of unruly black hair that hung down over his forehead and with rather stunning green eyes that his glasses did little to hide. . He wore a leather jacket and jeans, both expensive by the look of it. She also noticed that he had an odd wary air about him, as if he was used of being stared at and had grown used to it even if he didn't like it. Sue had once served coffee to a popular actor who had had the same air and she wondered if this Harry perhaps was famous for something and if she ought to know who he was.

Harry smiled and said, "Hello, I'm Harry and you must be Sue" and shook her hand before he turned to the girl behind him and said "This is Ginny."

Ginny was gorgeous and looked very glamourous with her long red hair, but she also had a very nice smile and Sue liked her at once.

"Hello Dudley," Harry said to his cousin and Sue noticed that they both seemed a bit strained and hurried to invite them in.

"Oh, Jaffa cakes!" Ginny said. "Mum always bakes the same old biscuits; you get to long for something else."

They chatted a bit about Sue's job and then she and Ginny realised that they both had a gaggle of older brothers and they compared notes for a while, but then Harry spoke.

"So, how is old Privet Drive? As awful as usual?"

"Did you spend a lot of time there when you were a kid?" Sue asked and Harry laughed rather bitterly.

"I grew up there, for my sins."

"Oh, so you are more like brothers than cousin? Funny that Dudley never-"

"No!" Harry and Dudley answered together with such force that Sue jumped and fell silent.

"You see", Harry explained after an uncomfortable silence, "Dudley and I never had many common interests and then I went away to a boarding school when we were eleven, St Brutus Sec-"

There Ginny threw a cookie at him, hitting him on the nose. "Behave, Harry!"

Harry smiled a bit ruefully. "Sorry, Big D, I'm just teasing you a little."

"S'alright." Dudley said and Sue saw that he was quite flushed.

The visit didn't last long, but just when they were leaving Harry turned to Dudley. "I really think you should tell Sue everything about the family."

"Mmm," was all Dudley answered.

When they were gone Sue told him that she thought Ginny was great, but that she didn't quite liked Harry. "I thought he was a bit mean to you. I bet he used to tease you all the time, when you were kid."

"Harry's all right." But Dudley still looked flushed and unhappy. There really was something strange going on here.

"What's the matter, hon?"

Dudley's look of unhappiness deepened. "I can't tell you, you'll hate me if you know."

"I would never! Tell me and you will feel better."

Dudley nodded and they curled up in the sofa. Dudley took her hand and held it so tightly that it almost hurt. "I was really mean when I was a kid. Really, really mean."

Sue could hardly believe it, Dudley was the nicest guy she had ever met, but she just nodded to make him go on.

"I never understood why my parent's decided to take care of Harry, because they never liked him. And you know, you think your parents are always right when you are a kid. I never thought about how strange it was that they made Harry sleep in the cupboard under the staircase, or never getting mew clothes but my old ones, or never getting to celebrate his birthday, because that was how things always had been."

Sue felt a surge of nausea. Dudley's parents were awful, but she hadn't though they could be this nasty? "That's child abuse, didn't anyone notice?"

Dudley stared down on his hands, shamefaced. "No, no one. And I just did what my parents did, I never thought about it at all. And I wasn't just mean to Harry, I bullied everyone."

He looked up at Sue. "It's really hard to talk about it."

She squeezed his hand. "You are doing fine."

"Well, Harry came home for summer every year and my parents got a little bit nicer to him, but not much. And then the summer when we turned fifteen." Dudley stopped again and Sue bit her lip not to urge him on, this was clearly very hard for him and after a while he continued.

"I was in an accident; I suppose I can call it that. A bad one, one that would have killed me. So bad that my whole life went through my head and I could see, really see, for the first time, how horrible I had been my whole life. How horrible I had always been to Harry. You see, Harry was there when it happened, it wasn't his fault, but he was there and I realised that he wouldn't help me, because he would just be happy if I died. And I felt so lonely and scared."

"But Harry helped you?"

"Harry saved my life. And when we came home my parents threw him out because they thought it was all Harry's fault and I was so shocked that I couldn't speak at all so I couldn't tell them until the next day. So you see, don't you, that if Harry wants to tease me a little, then it is all right. I'm glad that he still wants to have a little contact with me. Do you see, Sue?

"Yes, yes, I do."

"Don't you despise me now?"

"Dudley, I think you are wonderful!"

He looked at her with such surprise that she had to laugh. "But I was awful!"

"Yes, you were. But most people who are bullies never change, you know. They go through life being as nasty as they were as kids, only they usually get better at hiding it. You changed. That is so awesome!"

"You really mean that?"

"Of course I do."

Dudley sighed in relief. "You are awesome, Sue. You are the best that has ever happened to me."

Sue smiled and hugged him. Then she remembered what Harry had said. "Was it this that Harry wanted to tell me?"

Dudley hesitated a little. "Yes, yes of course it was."

Somehow it didn't ring completely true, but Sue could see how exhausting it had all been for Dudley, so she decided to let it go for now. Eventually she would find out what it was that Harry really had wanted her to know.


End file.
